#pay no attention to that largest official opposition in provincial history

[the-quotable-alberta-hansard]

May 29, 2024

Ms de Jonge: I have the opportunity to rise today on the one-year anniversary of the UCP election victory, but this was not merely a victory of a political party but a declaration by regular, common-sense Albertans that they do not want to see our province descend into the dual swamps of wokeness and socialism. It was a firm sign that the message of fear and division trumpeted by the NDP is not what the people of our province desire, and it was a great reminder that hope and confidence in the people of Alberta is always the right policy.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Trump Threatens to Send Federal Law Enforcement Forces to More Cities (NYT) President Trump plans to deploy federal law enforcement to Chicago and threatened on Monday to send agents to other major cities—all controlled by Democrats. Governors and other officials reacted angrily to the president’s move, calling it an election-year ploy as they squared off over crime, civil liberties and local control that has spread from Portland, Ore., across the country. With camouflage-clad agents already sweeping through the streets of Portland, more units were poised to head to Chicago, and Mr. Trump suggested that he would follow suit in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and other urban centers. Governors and other officials compared his actions to authoritarianism and vowed to pursue legislation or lawsuits to stop him. “I’m going to do something—that, I can tell you,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Because we’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia and Detroit and Baltimore and all of these—Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.”

Chicago restaurateur joins mission to feed America’s hungry (AP) Before coronavirus arrived, Manish Mallick’s trips to this city’s South Side had been limited to attending graduate classes at the University of Chicago. Now Mallick is a South Side regular—and a popular one. He regularly arrives bearing food for the hungry from his Indian restaurant several miles to the north, in the city’s downtown. “Thank you, sugar, for the meals. They’re so delicious!” one woman recently shouted to Mallick outside a South Side YWCA. “God bless you!” she added, raising her arms for emphasis. Mallick has personally delivered thousands of meals cooked and packed by his staff—among them, chickpea curry and tandoori chicken with roasted cottage cheese, sweet corn, peas and rice. Volunteers from neighborhood organizations then take them to children, retirees and the multitudes who’ve been laid off or sick during the pandemic. “We all need to help each other,” Mallick says. “That’s the best way to get through a crisis.”

American tourists are banned from the Bahamas as coronavirus cases spike (Washington Post) One of the few countries to welcome U.S. tourists has changed its mind, citing soaring infection numbers. The Bahamas will close its borders to most visitors from the United States starting Wednesday, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday. While commercial flights from Canada, Britain and the European Union will still be allowed to land, all visitors must show proof that they tested negative for the coronavirus at an accredited lab in the past 10 days. Other international flights will be banned.

More and more countries are making masks mandatory (Washington Post) As countries around the world reopen their economies amid ongoing novel coronavirus outbreaks, governments are increasingly embracing what remains in some places a divisive public health measure: mandatory masks. In France, face coverings will be required in all public enclosed spaces as of Monday. England is set to begin enforcing new rules that make masks mandatory inside supermarkets and other shops, effective Friday. In the U.S., there is no national mask requirement. But at the state level, a growing number of mask requirements have come into force.

EU agrees on $2.1 trillion deal after marathon summit (AP) After four days and nights of wrangling, exhausted European Union leaders finally clinched a deal on an unprecedented 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery fund early Tuesday, after one of their longest summits ever. The 27 leaders grudgingly committed to a costly, massive aid package for those hit hardest by COVID-19, which has already killed 135,000 people within the bloc alone. “Extraordinary events, and this is the pandemic that has reached us all, also require extraordinary new methods,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. To confront the biggest recession in its history, the EU will establish a 750 billion-euro coronavirus fund, partly based on common borrowing, to be sent as loans and grants to the hardest-hit countries. That is in addition to the agreement on the seven-year, 1 trillion-euro EU budget that leaders had been haggling over for months even before the pandemic. “The consequences will be historic,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. “We have created a possibility of taking up loans together, of setting up a recovery fund in the spirit of solidarity,” a sense of sharing debt that would have been unthinkable not so long ago.

Breached levees trap thousands as flooding in China worsens (AP) Breached levees have trapped more than 10,000 people in an eastern Chinese town as flooding worsens across much of the country, local authorities said Tuesday. High waters overcame flood defenses protecting Guzhen, a town in Anhui province, on Sunday, the provincial government said on its official microblog. Flood waters rose as high as 3 meters (10 feet), the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang Qingjun, Guzhen’s Communist Party secretary, as saying. About 1,500 firefighters were rushed to carry out rescues in the province, where weeks of heavy rains have disrupted the lives of more than 3 million people, Xinhua said.

Britain suspends extradition treaty with Hong Kong (NYT) Britain on Monday suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong amid worries about a new national security law that Beijing imposed on the former British colony. The suspension comes as London and Beijing find themselves at increasing odds over a variety of issues, including Britain’s move to bar Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G wireless networks and growing public anger in Britain over the treatment of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in China.

Japan helps 87 companies to ‘exit China’ after pandemic exposed overreliance (Washington Post) Japan is paying 87 companies to shift production back home or into Southeast Asia after the novel coronavirus pandemic disrupted supply chains and exposed an overreliance on Chinese manufacturing. Alarm bells started ringing in Japanese boardrooms as soon as the virus emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a major hub of the auto parts industry. Japanese automaker Nissan was forced to temporarily halt production at a plant in Japan in February over shortages of parts from China, while a Japanese consumer goods company, Iris Ohyama, found itself unable to meet surging local demand for masks after supplies to its factory in China were disrupted and export controls out of China were tightened. In March, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government wanted to bring production back home and diversify into Southeast Asia. The following month, the government set aside $2.2 billion in its coronavirus economic recovery package to subsidize that process. China is Japan’s largest trading partner, but Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has been trying for several years to reduce the country’s dependence on its giant neighbor. The 2008 global financial crisis, the 2011 northeastern Japan earthquake and the coronavirus pandemic all disrupted supply chains, while U.S.-China trade tensions are also a factor.

Jordan to reopen airports to tourists in August (AP) The Jordanian government says it will begin reopening airports to international travelers in August after sealing its borders in March to help halt the spread of the coronavirus. Travelers from a list of approved, low-risk countries must pass a coronavirus test at least 72 hours before departure and will get a second test upon arrival in Jordan, Transportation Minister Khaled Saif says. Jordan will require incoming tourists to download Aman, the government’s contact-tracing mobile application, for the duration of their stay in the country.

Swapping the stage for a deli: Israel underemployment rises (AP) A year ago, Cijay Brightman was doing sound and lighting for a Madonna performance in Israel. Now, after the coronavirus wiped out live events, he’s making sandwiches, slicing cheese and serving customers at a Tel Aviv deli. Brightman spent the last 15 years perfecting his craft and doing what he loves as a stage technician. But in the wake of the pandemic, he has been forced to abandon his passion and profession—like thousands of others in Israel—and find any job that will pay the bills. Underemployment is plaguing workers around the world. Although there are no global statistics yet, the phenomenon is expected to grow as the economic crisis around the world deepens, said economist Roger Gomis of the International Labor Organization.

King Salman hospitalized (Foreign Policy) Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz has been admitted to hospital with gallbladder problems, state media reported on Monday. The 84-year-old monarch is the second aging Gulf leader to seek medical attention recently, after 91-year-old Kuwaiti ruler Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah underwent surgery on Sunday for an as yet unnamed ailment.

Uganda’s Museveni seeks re-election to extend rule to four decades (Reuters) Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni has collected papers to seek nomination as the ruling party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, the party said on Tuesday. Securing a new term would potentially extend the 75-year-old former rebel fighter’s rule to four decades. Though no date has yet been fixed for the 2021 vote, it is typically held in February. The strongest opposition presidential aspirant is pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine, 38, whose music endears him to the young. In power since 1986, Museveni’s tenure is only surpassed in Africa by Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, who has ruled since 1979 and Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who has ruled since 1982.